Iran's Revolutionary Guards
Beat Sanctions: Exile

Reuters, August 23, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards are using front
groups to beat U.N. sanctions and acquire weapons and
material for Tehran's nuclear program, an exiled
opponent of the Iranian government said on Wednesday.

Alireza Jafarzadeh, who
accurately disclosed important details about Iran's
nuclear program in 2002, called for tighter U.N.
curbs and swift U.S. action to rein in the elite
corps.

"The Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps has been, consistently
over the past few months, violating the United
Nations resolutions 1737 and 1747, using different
ways to evade the sanctions and import goods and
material," Jafarzadeh said at a news conference in
Washington.

Those two sets of
sanctions were slapped on Iran for rejecting any
halt to uranium enrichment, a process the United
States and other Western countries suspect Tehran is
using to develop atomic bombs.

Iran says its nuclear
program is peaceful and on Tuesday struck a deal
with the International Atomic Energy Agency on how
to defuse Western suspicions about its nuclear
ambitions.

Jafarzadeh, who provided
names and details of 15 firms he said were operating
as fronts for the Revolutionary Guards and its
affiliates, said the U.N. sanctions did not cover
all of the firms that were abetting Iran's nuclear
drive.

"This is alarming
because we have seen an upsurge of activities of the
Iranian regime in regards to a whole host of rogue
activities -- both stepping up their engagement in
terrorism in Iraq, but specifically on the weapons
of mass destruction (and) the nuclear weapons
program," he said.

'U.S. NEEDS TO TAKE ACTION'

Jafarzadeh said his
information came from Iran-based members of the People's
Mujahideen Organization of Iran, which seeks to topple
Iran's government and is on the U.S. list of extremist
organizations.

Now a Washington consultant,
he served as congressional liaison and spokesperson in
the United States for the exiled National Council of
Resistance of Iran for 12 years until 2003. A staunch
critic of Tehran, he has been vilified by Iran and
pro-government groups.

Jafarzadeh listed some
prominent firms as front companies for the Revolutionary
Guards and said other firms, including Iranian-owned
companies in Dubai and Italy, played roles in Iran's
clandestine nuclear and weapons programs.

"A lot of these
organizations need to be added, not only to the United
Nations Security Council Resolutions ... but,
specifically, the United States needs to take action,"
he said.

Jafarzadeh said his
information came from Iran-based members of the People's
Mujahideen Organization of Iran, which seeks to topple
Iran's government and is on the U.S. list of extremist
organizations.

U.S. officials said last
week that Washington might soon name the Revolutionary
Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist group, a move that
would enable the United States to go after the finances
of a pillar of Iran's Islamic government.

The U.S. designation "should
have been done a long time ago," said Jafarzadeh.

"We are not talking about a
military entity like any other country," he said of the
Revolutionary Guards. "We're talking about really a
Mafia that is dominating every aspect of the country,
headed by the supreme leader and the president."

The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis by
Alireza Jafarzadeh